Posts in 'Paper & Packaging'

So maybe I'm the last to the gate here, but as I'm sitting here in my hotel room checking in to my Newark – Boston flight home, I received an option from Continental to receive a paperless boarding pass.

Now travelers who check-in to their flights ahead of time can receive a link on their cell phones or PDAs that they scan at the TSA security checkpoint and at the gate. Apparently, there are now 30 airports and 5 airlines piloting the technology.

If there are any pilot airlines or airports reading our blog, check out EDF's online Paper Calculator so you can calculate the environmental impacts of this cool new innovation. Thanks for reducing the paper waste AND my frustration when I search for that crumpled piece of paper at the bottom of my travel bag.

EDF recently enhanced one of our most popular resources for companies: PaperCalculator.org.

Now fully updated with the latest scientific information, it is a robust tool for understanding how different paper choices affect the environment – whether you want to know how many trees were spared by reducing paper use, or the energy savings from choosing recycled content versus virgin.

Random House, Staples, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo and Starbucks, among others, have used PaperCalculator.org to manage their paper purchases. In total, the tool saw 27,000 uses in the past year.

So what’s new with version 2.0? Read more »

Today EDF and Restaurant Associates (part of the foodservice giant Compass Group) released the Green Dining Best Practices, a comprehensive set of science-based recommendations for environmentally friendly dining. The recommendations cover twelve key dining categories related to food purchase and facility operation, and will be updated over time as new best practices evolve.

The project began over a year and a half ago in response to a growing number of inquiries we were getting from companies confused by the plethora of "green" solutions being recommended to them by the media, vendors, and suppliers. Some of the questions included: what's more important local or organic? What do I do about bottled water? Is this biodegradable package really more environmentally friendly? Frankly, they were confused. And no wonder. Read more »

Today, EDF releases Innovations Review 2009: Green Advances for a New Economy.  As the title implies, we're highlighting compelling new practices and technologies that drive operational efficiency, create new business opportunities and carve out competitive advantage in these challenging times.  Why?  Because even though these practices have been proven to be technically and financially feasible, they're not yet in widespread use.  Simply put, we want to see these innovations – and the environmental benefits they represent – spread more quickly.

Innovations Review 2009 covers advances in business sectors from food service to agriculture to real estate to financial services.  For just a sampling, check out:

• High-tech computer systems that monitor real-time weather data and soil conditions to help companies reduce the water needed for crop irrigation and commercial landscaping by 15-40%.
• A new mortgage program that is boosting sales by offering homebuyers lower interest rates if they elect to install solar panels in their new homes.
• Annual employee performance reviews that now tie environmental results to compensation, up to the senior executive level.

We hope that Innovations Review 2009 will provide your company with useful models and inspire your team to go even further.  We'd love for you to share stories about what’s new at your company and think about nominating yourself for inclusion in the 2010 edition of our Innovations Review. Please leave your comments below or send them to Innovations Review Editor, Beth Trask.

Talk and follow the conversation about Innovations Review 2009 with the tag: IR2009

Yesterday the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) launched COMPASS, a new software tool that corporate packaging designers can use to assess the environmental impacts of packaging designs and inform decisions about packaging changes.

COMPASS grew out of an earlier software tool called MERGE that EDF developed through our partnerships with SC Johnson, Bristol Meyers Squibb and Aveda in 1996-2001. The goal of those partnerships was to create an easy-to-use software program that companies could use to evaluate the environmental profiles of different product and packaging designs. Bristol Meyers Squibb and Aveda each used MERGE to redesign packages to reduce environmental impact.

In 2006, the SPC, an industry working group of packaged goods companies and packaging suppliers, conducted a review of available environmental packaging design tools. Selecting MERGE as the most promising among them, SPC approached EDF about updating and redeveloping MERGE for use by a broader group of companies. We licensed MERGE to GreenBlue, the non-profit organization that convenes the SPC, for its use as the basis for COMPASS. Our Senior Scientist Dr. Richard Denison, who was the original developer of MERGE, served as a peer reviewer for COMPASS' new methodology.

The new COMPASS tool is supported by updated datasets, includes additional packaging materials and environmental metrics, and includes specific packaging fabrication processes not included in the original version of MERGE. It should be a good resource for companies looking to understand and improve the environmental impacts of their packaging. A license will run you $750 ($500 if your company is an SPC member), but you can get a pretty good sense of the tool’s capabilities by using the free trial. Check it out and share your thoughts with the Innovation Exhange community!